Thanh Hu Viet
Thanh Hu Viet was the "Snakehead" of the Da Nang Boys criminal organization from Vietnam. He was an infamous human trafficker and extortionist, and in 1992 he attempted to move his gang to San Francisco from Da Nang. His move led to a war with the Loco Syndicate and the San Francisco Triads and, ultimately, his death. Biography Thanh Hu Viet was born in Da Nang, French Indochina (present-day Vietnam) in 1910. He was a skilled swordsman, and he used his violent skills to achieve his criminal goals, founding the Da Nang Boys street gang. His organization trafficked Vietnamese slaves into the United States' major port city of San Francisco, and he also made money through protection rackets and other illicit means. Thanh Hu Viet became known as "The Snakehead", both the highest title in the Vietnamese Mafia and also Chinese slang for human trafficker. His gang established a strong presence in SF's Easter Basin neighborhood, and in 1992 Thanh Hu Viet planned a move to San Francisco with the rest of the gang. This move brought him into conflict with the San Francisco Triads of Chinatown and the Loco Syndicate of Battery Point, two strong organizations. His men, easily identifiable by their bizarre outfits and their choice of motorcycles as their vehicles, were involved in two thefts of drugs from the Loco Syndicate, but both times, their associate Carl Johnson killed their members and recovered the drugs (on the second occasion, CJ rescued Loco Syndicate Mike Toreno from a Da Nang Boys van at the San Francisco International Airport, and was forced to blow up the van and the drugs). CJ also worked for the Triads, and he started off his career by killing a group of Vietnamese gangsters who had just wiped out the Blood Feather Triad. He also helped them by retrieving a car from the airport and dodging a Da Nang Boys ambush at the terminal, stopping a Da Nang Boys planned assassination of him. He also lured some of their bikers away from Red Gecko Tong leader Ran Fa Li as he escaped from his temporary sanctuary in Mountain Cloud Boys boss Wu Zi Mu's betting shop in Chinatown, and he planned to deliver the decisive blow by planting a bug on their ship and finding out details about their arrival. Soon after, The Snakehead himself arrived on a cargo ship at the docks of Easter Basin. The ship not only carried him and a force of Da Nang Boys enforcers, but also some containers carrying refugees tricked into coming on the voyage by The Snakehead. Carl Johnson silently infiltrated the ship and took care of many of the guards on the deck before heading into the hold and engaging in a gunfight with the guards and freeing the refugees. They told him that The Snakehead was on the bridge, and CJ had them prepare to escape by getting the dinghies ready as he left nobody alive on the bridge. CJ killed the three guards at the bridge (one on the entrance to the bridge and two on a staircase to the control room in the bridge), and he encountered The Snakehead in the control room. The Snakehead decided to have an honorable duel, drawing a katana and throwing CJ a katana to fight him with. However, the 82-year-old Snakehead was no match for CJ, who slashed at him repeatedly and killed him - The Snakehead did not get a chance to make one strike at Carl. His death weakened the gang, who lost several more members in a failed ambush of a Loco Syndicate cocaine shipment heading from King's to Doherty the night after his death. Category:Dons Category:Mobsters Category:Vietnamese Category:Gangsters Category:Killed Category:Da Nang Boys